Last week I blogged about using word count to motivate me. I’ve tried it before and I found it stressed me out, but as I said, this time I broke it down differently than before and the count is not so daunting anymore. I managed to double my expected word count last week and it has given me momentum. Promise what’s required, deliver more…

This last weekend while snowed in – we got over a foot of snow overnight on Saturday – I decided I would spend the day researching how to outline stories . Just hearing the word outline gives me hives because I’m a discovery writer.

Because outlining went against my nature I tuned out when people tried to explain the hero’s journey, 3 act play, etc. I got anxious when I had to know what the inciting incident was, or the pinch point. No amount of explanation, and believe me many tried, made me understand. I didn’t have any grand scenes/events that would qualify. Just by their names it meant these events had to be blockbuster, didn’t it?

Back to the Patience/Production. Patience I have very little. I want to sit down at my computer at 7 in the morning and write a 90,000 word epic story, have it editor ready by noon, and returned formatted with a stunning cover tomorrow morning and then up on the sales sites by tomorrow afternoon. 

Yes, that is an exaggeration, but every time I start a story I want it to be my reality. I’ve found myself in a hot mess on the last two manuscripts I’ve written. I tried to put everything I could think of into the stories and it was an epic fail. Both had to be re-written with careful thought of what I really wanted to say or where I truly wanted the story to go. Even though it was a great learning experience, I want to avoid this in the future, or at least minimize the amount of re-writing.

It’s a new year so I thought I might give outlining a fair try. I never thought I would say that and really mean it, but I think I’ve found a method that just might work for me. I’m still shuttering at the thought of outlining, but the tremors are a little smaller…

Finally, I found a method that speaks my language. Yes, all those other words like Inciting incident and pinch point are in there, but the way it is explained makes sense now. Maybe I might learn a little about Patience as well…

This method also works well with scrivener. Another of my New Year’s goals is to use scrivener since I bought it early last year and haven’t used it yet. But, I’m sure it would work in word or another word processing program just as well.

Wish me luck.